10 Years Ago
Week of August 16, 2012
SUGAR GROVE
Parents Should Be
Engaged in Their
Child’s Education
Teaching children in the early days was considered a private, not a public responsibility. Ministers of the church took on the role and assumed some responsibility for the children in their respective parishes. Illiteracy was great at that time, especially among women and the poor. It was the pioneer life that required learning trades, such as log-cabin construction, cooking, spinning, knitting and weaving, hunting and chopping of wood. These life skills were deemed as more important than the three Rs. It was after the Civil War that schools were provided for the children of West Virginia.
One-room schools followed practically the same structural details…six windows, a black board, one door, shelves for lunch pails, teacher’s desk and chair, iron pot belly stove, homemade desks for the pupils, a bucket and dipper and nails to hang coats and hats.
Early terms averaged about four months in winter, with students walking distances to school, over mountains, out of hollows and across streams. Classes were never cancelled because of rain, snow, snow drifts, hail or bitter cold winds. If clothing became wet from the snow, the students sat by the stove to get dry. Since all eight grades were included in the one room setting, the younger children learned from hearing the upper grades. For one teacher to impart learning to so many students and grade levels, strict discipline was required. Recess and noon hour fun included Prisoner’s Base, Fox and Goose, Town Ball, tag and marbles.
The sound of the morning bell called all to line up outdoors to hoist the flag, say the “Pledge of Allegiance” and sing “The National Anthem.” Prayers were said prior to the eating of lunch. Numerous fundraising activities, such as box suppers, peanut socials and cake walks, were held to help raise monies to purchase items for the school, such as books for the library.
20 Years Ago
Week of August 22, 2002
Perdue Farms to Close Petersburg Plant
On Oct. 11, the poultry industry, which contributes $200 million annually to the West Virginia economy, will lose about 365 workers in this area, when the Perdue Farms plant in Petersburg, which produces boneless chicken breast products, closes permanently.
Between 30 and 35 Pendleton County residents work there.
Grant County officials have said the plant closure is a devastating blow to the local economy.
In 1998, Perdue Farms bought the chicken breast de-boning operation in Petersburg from Advantage Foods.
The Importance
Of True Friendship Should Never Be Taken For Granted
The late Dale Carnegie, founder of the internationally famous course on public speaking and human relations, once said, “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
It has often been said that we all need friends and I personally know this is true. While some people are loners and may not have any friends at all, to my way of thinking, they are missing one of the greatest blessings in life. We all need friends and perhaps even more importantly, friends need us.
40 Years Ago
Week of August 19, 1982
New Pavilion Serving Many People
In Franklin Town Park
A big improvement in the Franklin Town Park this summer was the addition of a pavilion for use by family gatherings, church groups, clubs and other organizations.
The pavilion provides ample room for eight full size picnic tables and it will seat approximately 100 persons.
‘Fresh Air’ Children
Visit County
Thirteen “Fresh Air Children” from New York returned to their homes Tuesday after spending two weeks with host families in Pendleton County.
Part of the children livedwith families in the North Fork section of the county and part stayed with families in the Franklin area.
While in Pendleton County, the children learned that you dig potatoes and that West Virginians eat gravy.
Several Areas
In the House Provide Place to Store Crops
If you’re planning to store vegetables and fruits at home you probably can find suitable locations without having to build a special storage room.
A foam or plastic chest placed in a garage or breezeway makes a good small storage unit. Package produce in small plastic bags and use a separate chest for fruits and vegetables. Or if you need a larger storage area, build a storage cabinet in the garage.
Outdoor storage cellars can be considered partly or entirely below ground. Below ground cellars are better because they maintain a more desirable and uniform temperature longer than above ground cellars.
Several areas in the house provide a variety of temperature and moisture conditions. They usually are convenient and include attics, unheated porches or rooms, basement window wells and outdoor stairwells or bulkheads.
50 Years Ago
Week of August 24, 1972
DAHMER
We are wondering why most hornet nests in this section are not far from the ground. One answer a few of the older folks give is that a mild winter is ahead. When the hornet nests are high in the trees a cold winter is ahead. The hornet, wasps and yellow jackets are the inventors of paper, producing it for the nests of chewed wood, plant fibers and saliva.
60 Years Ago
Week of August 23, 1962
100 YEARS AGO
By LON K. SAVAGE
Editor’s Note—The following is one of a series of articles on the Civil War. Each weekly installment covers events which occurred exactly 100 years ago.
Lincoln and Greeley
Argue About Slavery
Horace Greeley’s widely-read newspaper, “The New York Tribune,” made news itself 100 years ago this week.
Greeley, spokesman for northern abolitionists, came out with an editorial in his August 19 issue severely criticizing the President’s slavery policies.
“We think you are strangely and disastrously remiss in the discharge of your official and imperative duty,” the paper said in the editorial, entitled “The Prayer of Twenty Millions.”
“You are unduly influenced by the counsels, the representations, the menace of certain politicians hailing from the border Slave States,” the editorial continued. And it added: “We complain that a large proportion of our regular army officers with many of the volunteers evince far more solicitude to uphold slavery than to put down the rebellion.”
The article, which was read by thousands, drew forth from Lincoln one of his most famous writings: a clear, simple statement of his thoughts toward slavery and the Civil War. Lincoln answered it three days after Greeley’s editorial appeared, and the answer—a letter—was printed throughout the land.
“…I would save the Union,” Lincoln wrote simply. “I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution… If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them.”
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.”
“I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.”
At the time Lincoln released the letter, he already had in mind issuing an emancipation proclamation to free the slaves and, in fact, already had discussed the proclamation with his cabinet.
Even at that time, Lincoln realized that his personal wish—“that all men everywhere could be free”—probably would coincide soon with his official duty—to save the Union.
For as each month went by, Lincoln was becoming more aware that freeing the slaves would help save the Union.
Navy May Use Sugar Grove Site For Radio Communications Station
The Navy is reported to be considering the site of the recently abandoned “Big Ear” project near Sugar Grove in Pendleton County for a radio receiving station for Naval Communications Headquarters in Washington.
A team of several chief petty officers has been at the Sugar Grove site for the past several weeks making extensive tests of radio reception in the area. According to reports, results of the tests are excellent and the Navy is very much interested in turning the site into a radio receiving station for its Washington headquarters.
If this possibility should materialize, the station would be used to receive radio communications from Naval bases all over the world. Direct wires would connect the Sugar Grove site with Naval Communications headquarters in Washington. There would be no transmitting from this station.
At present the Navy has radio receiving stations at Cheltanham, Md., and at Norfolk, Va. It is reported that the industrialization of the Cheltanham area is interferring with radio reception there and there is some thought of moving the station to an area where there is less radio interference.
If the Navy would take over the Sugar Grove site for a radio receiving station, all the steel work in the area would be removed and a number of specially designed radio antennas would be constructed.
The underground building would be especially suitable for this purpose as it is shielded against radio interference and it maintains a constant temperature which facilitates maintenance of the radio equipment.
It is reported that approximately 40 to 50 Navy personnel would be required to operate the station initially, and if the Cheltanham station is moved here, the number of Navy personnel would increase to as many as 300 over a period of perhaps five years as the Cheltanham station is phased out.
About half as many civilian personnel would be employed for maintenance and non-technical work as there would be Navy personnel on the station.
70 Years Ago
Week of August 21, 1952
HOMEMAKER NEWS
By mary mann zinn
Home Demonstration Agent
Freezing Musts . . .
Three “musts” hold the secret to good home-frozen vegetables.
One—you must use fresh-picked vegetables that are in excellent condition. The product you take out of the freezer is only as good as what you put in.
Two—all vegetables must be scalded. You may know this process as blanching. Scalding retards the action of the enzymes which bring about “off” flavors and a change in color.
You’ll find that all vegetables—except broccoli—are best when scalded in boiling water. Broccoli is better when scalded in steam.
Prepare your vegetables for scalding as directed, using at least a gallon of rapidly boiling water for every pound of vegetables.
Home economics advise that you scald just a pound of vegetables at a time to make sure that the scalding is thorough and that there isn’t a lowering of the temperature of the water.
Third—as soon as you’ve finished scalding the vegetables, pop them into cold water. Vegetables must be chilled thoroughly to stop the cooking and to cut down on the chance that spoilage organisms will grow. It usually takes as long to chill the vegetables as it does to scald them.
